Oral administration is one of the most prevalent methods for delivering active ingredients or medicaments to the body. Active ingredients or medicaments may be orally administered in a variety of physical states such as solid, liquid, or powder. Capsules have become the preferred drug delivery systems (DDS) for administering oral dosages.
Conventional capsules include a first compartment section, known as a base, and a second compartment section referred to as a cap. The two compartments of the capsule are designed so that the material to be encapsulated is dispensed into the base, and the open end of the cap section is correspondingly disposed over the open end of the base. The walls of the cap and base are in physical contact with one another forming a single internal compartment. A means for structurally sealing the cap in relation to the base is also incorporated into the manufacturing of capsules, thereby preventing contamination of the capsule.
Advances in pharmacological therapy are achieved through the discovery of new molecules or the identification of more efficient methods of administration, e.g. the development of DDS. DDS exploits technological features, including design, composition, and manufacturing processes, to determine, modulate, and improve the drug availability at the site of action. In addition to the therapeutic advantages, DDS affords improvements in bioavailability, efficacy and compliance, as well as overall drug dose and side effect reduction. As such, the economic and health benefits related to the reduction and control of development costs and line extension through these improvements are important to the success of this technology.
A large number of encapsulates (carriers) used for DDSs are based on pharma-grade polymeric materials with a distinguishing behavior in the biological environment, including pH-dependent solubility, enzyme degradability, swelling (glassy to rubbery transition), and successive erosion and dissolution in aqueous fluids, bio-adhesion, and permeability. In some instances, the conventional DDS design strategy makes use of polymers inter-dispersed with the active ingredient in the form of a matrix system. In other instances, the conventional DDS design strategy applies the pharma-grade polymeric materials as a coating barrier onto active ingredient containing cores such as reservoir systems and osmotic pumps. In particular, for the coated systems, physical characteristics of the manufactured DDS pill, such as shape, dimension, and surface properties, as well as technological characteristics of thermal and mechanical resistance, friability, wettability, disintegration and dissolution tendency, and further stability characteristics of the inner core may impair or constrain the coating process and decrease on the system performance. Given the importance of DDS, new systems and methods for supporting DDS are needed in the art.
Given the above background, improvements regarding a dispensing system, a filament extruder, a capsule, and a user interface are needed in the art.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.